Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Michael Mallen, practicing psychologist and author of the Id DM D&D blog, discuss the psychology of the gaming table. This podcast discusses some of Mallen’s excellent studies into the mind of the players and the dungeon master and statistical studies of the Penny Arcade D&D podcasts.

Mike Shea of Sly Flourish talks to Quinn Murphy of At-Will about skill challenges. Learn the top 3 tips for effective skill challenges. Get the hot button questions answered like when to say or hide the fact that players are in a skill challenge, how do you write up skill challenges, how to add interesting choices into skill challenges, how to engage players in a skill challenge, using skill challenges in combat, and much more.

In this episode of the ENNIE-NOMINATED DM Guys podcast, Newbie and Dave are joined by Sarah Darkmagic as co-host, Dave talks to Brennan Taylor and Ryan Macklin about running convention games, NewbieDM talks to Daniel Perez about running online games, and we answer listener questions.

What is power creep? How does it manifest in 4e? What are some of the egregious examples? How can a DM deal with all those many classes, races, powers, and items out there? These questions and more are discussed by Mike Shea of Sly Flourish and Matt James of Loremaster.

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